Monday, April 25, 2011

Here in the Rockwood School District, I'm beginning to wonder if we really like going to school. You see, there is not one single month of the school year that does not include some sort of three day weekend. No one. Last month was Spring Break. This month, it's Easter Weekend. For Spring Break they had the Friday before and then an entire week. This past weekend, the Z Kids had a half day on Thursday, off for Good Friday, and off for Easter Monday. Now, as a Believer and Church Musician, I am all for celebrating Easter. Bur ALL of these days off school???? This is getting ridiculous. It's madness, I tell you. At least, that's what it has become in the B House. To the following extent....

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I lost it as a mom on Friday. I mean lost it. Remember the mention of my car door snafu last week? Still not ready to talk about it. (I'll get there, I will.)But what preceded it was the verbal shenanigans of my children's mouths. My Z2 will make a lovely lawyer one day, but her mouth just DOES.NOT.STOP. After Thursday's ordeal, I was still a bit on edge (read:only one nerve left and I can't promise you it was even whole). On Friday, after dropping off my car to be repaired, I had plenty of Easter errands to run. So I load the kids into the car and off we go. And the mouths began. I told them nicely FOUR times within EIGHT minutes to stop and they didn't. So I don't know what came over me, but I whipped around with the mean stank eye, pointed my finger at their surprised faces and said,"Knock it off!!! Knock this crap off. RIGHT. NOW. And if you (pointing at Z2) don't wipe that smirk off your face right now, I am going to beat you within an inch of your life! (No, I really don't lay a hand to them, but sometimes fear is a healthy thing). And FEAR NOT! Should I go a little too far and take you out, I am CONfident that I will pray and the Lord Jesus Himself will raise you up so I can beat you again!!!!!!" And then I turned around, put both hands on the wheel and said,"Are we CLEAR?"

There was a sheepish reply of,"Yes ma'am," from the backseat.

I'm not proud of this, mind you. I try very hard not to lose it. But sometimes being nice just doesn't work. Suffice to say, they were pretty much well behaved for the rest of the trip. Pretty quiet too.

Until we hit the last grocery store. Z2 began to get exceedingly verbal. This time, I held my cool. I looked at her and said,"Z2, the last time we were here at the end of errands, you had a complete meltdown. Do you remember what happened after that?" (She was grounded from playdates for an entire month. Mama ain't playin'.)

"Yep," she replied,"And I don't need a repeat."

Good girl.

Honestly, I think this five day weekend is a ploy to motivate me to sign my kids up for summer camps. Guess what I'll be doing this afternoon....